Rs 150 petrol ignites Rs 24 Crore Surat textile market blaze over salary dispute

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Surat: Rs 10,000 salary dispute turns into big fire in Shyam Sangini Textile Market in Surat; goods worth about Rs 24 crore gutted by fire.

The Surat Crime Branch arrested 33-year-old Vinod Savle, a former accountant at one of the shops, in connection with the fire on 9 September.

According to police, Savle, who was working as an accountant at textile trader Hanuman Prasad Zawar’s shop since April 2026, was being paid a monthly salary of 30,000.

After quitting, he is said to have said that Rs 10,000 of his pay was due and that he was being harassed by others at the workplace. He wanted “to teach his employer a lesson”.

As per reports, Savle allegedly bought Rs 150 worth of petrol at a petrol station and put it into a plastic bag.

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He then went into the market after working hours and is said to have sprinkled the parcels of textiles with petrol and set them alight. The fire quickly spread to other shops.

The fire had consumed stock of 17 shops of four textile traders, where the total loss was about 24 crore.

Police obtained CCTV footage and intelligence to identify Savle.

He then turned off his mobile phone, after which he travelled to Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and UP before returning to Surat, where he was arrested.

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